Many moons ago—in fact, it was 1994-95–I got my first internet service connection (oh, guess what!?!? It was AOL!!!)
I would log onto to the AOL Rams message board all throughout the season. And then it started happening. All these posters from St. Louis started to post and kept claiming the Rams were moving to St. Louis.
I kept arguing with them—probably some of you here!—that they weren’t and the Angelinos are not fair weather football fans and that we can and have supported professional football.
And as the writing became clearer and clearer in early 1995–in spite of Leigh Steinberg’s efforts to save the Rams—the coup de grâce was the news that
Enos Stanley Kroenke was going to buy a minority share in the team.
I thought any chance of the Rams miraculously coming back home to LA was the extremist of fantasies. A guy named after two St. Louis Cardinal greats is going to keep that team in St. Louis forever.
So, that’s when I negotiated with reality and told reality he won. I’m sorry to my fellow Rams’ fans in St. Louis and I tip my hat to the Angelinos who kept faithful to the team, but it was most definitely not on account of the players and coaches, but solely due to Georgia and how she let a once proud franchise whither away and wouldn’t pay the players and how some of my heroes like Fred Dryer reacted to her that I just couldn’t root for her to succeed in her money grabbing scheme and, hence, I put my love for the team in suspended animation.
One of the downers was that I couldn’t enjoy that Super Bowl 34 win. Loved Kurt Warner and all those guys, especially D’Marco Farr and Marshall Faulk who was my favorite running back. And relished when they destroyed the 49ers in that home game in the dome that year. And I remember that punk Ken Norton punching the goal post pad and Dana Stubblefield’s disrespect. But after all that football side of it, I couldn’t shake off the Georgia betrayal.
I even tried rooting for the Chargers. But it wasn’t the same as rooting for the Los Angeles Rams.
So, to think the guy who’s named after Enos Slaughter and Stan the Man Musial brought my childhood team back to Los Angeles which is a major miracle in itself and, on top of that, has poured his capital into making the team a winner and embraced the old LA Rams’ tradition, I can’t believe reality released me from the compromise I negotiated with him back in 1995.
I’m pinching myself. And if I ever get the chance to meet Mr. Kroenke at a random Starbucks’ stop on Trancas and PCH, I’m pro going to kiss his hand like I do to a newly ordained priest.
These times have certainly been crazy and bless all of you for putting up with my own grumpiness in the face of them.
But should the Rams win next Sunday, it’s going to be unreal when reality previously told me he was the only game in town.
We Not Me
